updated 05:29 am EDT, Tue August 12, 2014

Flat rate for calls in upcoming T-Mobile prepaid service changes

T-Mobile will be launching changes to its prepaid service on August 17th, it has revealed. The new Pay as You Go plans aim to be simpler to understand and more affordable than earlier prepaid offerings, by providing a flat rate for texts and talk of 10 cents per message or minute, with customers required to use a minimum of $3 on the service each month.

Those wanting data on their prepaid service have a few options, if slightly more costly. Two passes will be available for LTE data access, with a $5 one-day pass providing up to 500MB of data, and a seven-day pass with 1GB of data priced at $10.

By contrast, the current prepaid service provides an equivalent per-minute cost as high as 33 cents per minute, depending on how much is added to the account, with texts at 10 cents each. A $3 daily plan provided unlimited talk, text, and data, with up to 200MB of LTE service, while a $2 option provided the same but only with 2G-speed data.

The new Pay as You Go plan comes shortly after an announcement by the carrier claiming it to be the largest prepaid wireless provider in the United States. Its most recent quarterly increase of 102,000 prepaid customers raised its audience to 15.64 million, narrowly beating nearest rival Sprint's 15.19 million audience. In the same announcement, T-Mobile CEO John Legere claimed the carrier would overtake Sprint in terms of total customers by the end of this year, with T-Mobile having just over 50 million customers and continuing to rise compared to Sprint's slowly-eroding 53.3 million customer total.